Portrait: The Guinea Pig Club
 
Photographs and text kindly provided by
Nicola Kurtz
www.nicolakurtz.com
The photographs were taken at the 65th reunion in East Grinstead in September 2006.
 
The archival records of the plastic surgery are from
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Holtye Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 3DZ, UK
 
The Queen Victoria Hospital remains a leading center for providing plastic services in hands, reconstruction, burns and trauma, maxillofacial services in reconstruction and trauma. The skill based on the pioneering plastic surgery of Mr. Archibald McIndoe. Some of the adult wards at the hospital remain in the "Canadian wing" honoring the injured Canadian airmen of the Second World War treated there. One of the men in this exhibition, Henry Ernst, came from Lunenberg Co., Nova Scotia, Canada.
 
"Lest We Forget" are more than words and this exhibition is a testimony to the airmen and the surgical and nursing staff who treated them.
 
Warning: These images may be considered disturbing as this exhibition remembers the pioneering plastic surgery of Archibald McIndoe. Thanks to Nicola Kurtz who photographed the 65th reunion of The Guinea Pig Club in September 2006.